This oneshot is for those of you who have ever wondered what Macey's original thoughts were of the Gallagher Academy. And everyone else who wants to read it. Every thing that a character says, is taken from the book.
Disclaimer: I am not Ally Carter. Now that we've gotten the obvious out of the way...
ONTO THE STORY!
MPOV
As we pulled up at the wrought- iron gates of the "prestigious," Gallagher Academy, I questioned -for the millionth time in my life- the sanity of the Senator and his wife. Or as I was supposed to call them, mommy and daddy. I had to fight back a snort when I heard that load of crap. What kind of "mommies," and "daddies," ship their only daughter off to four different boarding schools since she was in seventh grade?
Mine I guess.
And the Gallagher Academy was soon to be the fifth.
My parents were bickering about God knows what, when I pulled out a nail file, and starter to run it over my recently French tipped nails. My God, how much longer was this going to take? Prada is having a sale as we speak, and I'm missing it.
After what seemed like an hour of waiting, the gates opened up and we started rolling slowly through the driveway.
When we pulled up to the big mansion, I saw two pretty girls sitting on the front steps.
One had espresso colored skin, and long, straight black hair. She was tall and lean. The other girl was tan- ish, and and had long brown hair. She was tall, a bit lanky, but still fit.
It was the same at every school. Tour guides. Great.
The Senator got out of the limo first, followed by his wife. But I stayed in the back seat, lazily filing my nails.
The two girls walked over to my parents, while the muscular girl grasped Senator McHenry's hand. Through the window, I could practically hear her kissing up.
Yup, the same at every school.
I could see my father say something, then turn to look in my direction.
My turn.
I opened the door and stuck out my new Gucci combat boots first, then my long - not an ounce of fat on them- legs. Then I actually stood up and looked around.
"Darling, come look. They have horses." He said, pointing in the direction of a far off stable. That showed how much my father knew me.
I hated horses.
"Oh, is that what I smell?" My mother said as she shuddered.
"Macey loves horses." He said, defensively glaring at my mom.
Watch it guys. Your going to blow our cover as "the most perfect family of the year," I thought, rolling my eyes at the title that the Times gave us two months ago.
"No, Macey hates horses." My mom snapped.
I decided to finally speak up.
"Yeah, they make great glue." I said, forcing as much attitude into my voice as I could muster up.
I saw both girls give me the same once- over that I had received at every school before this. This one seemed different though. Like they were taking in more detail about me. Memorizing every inch of my face to see if I were standing in a crowd of hundreds, they would know who I was.
"We're..." The smaller girl stammered. "We're really happy to have you here."
"Then why did you keep us sitting out there for over an hour?"
It was over an hour? Woah.
"I'm afraid that's standard protocol for people who come without an appointment. Security is a top concern here at the Gallagher Academy. If your daughter were to go here, you could expect the same level of protection." The black haired girl said in a kiss up voice.
"Do you know who he is? Do you know-"
"We were on our way back to D.C.," He said, cutting off mom before she could act like the spoiled house wife she was. "And we couldn't resist bringing Macey by for a visit. And the security is most impressive." He said, shooting a look at his wife.
The black haired girl opened the doors for us and we were greeted by a woman who needed almost no make up, who greeted herself as the headmistress.
She welcomed us into her office, and launched into the history of the Gallagher Academy. A conversation that I almost fell asleep listening to.
But my attention was snapped back, when I heard my name mentioned.
"Rebecca, why don't you and Cammie show Macey around?" The black haired girl- Rebecca- looked happy. Yup, she was definitely a kiss up. The brown haired girl- Cammie- looked excited, but a bit apprehensive.
"Senator, it was an honor meeting you sir. And you too ma' am. So glad that you both-"
"Thank you Rebecca." The headmistress said. Yes, thank you.
I quickly stood up, not wanting to be near these people any more. God, I needed a smoke.
I quickly walked out the office door, without my "tour guides," and walked through a hall that showed a bunch of fliers and posters supporting someone named Emily for student council president, debate team, and other normal things that you would find at every other school. I stopped at a cabinet and leaned against it. Fishing my Camels out of a tiny pocket in my skirt, I got out my lighter, and took a drag. Then I blew the smoke toward the detectors on the ceiling, hoping that if I set off an alarm, they'd kick me out.
Then the "Guides," found me.
"You've got to put that out." Rebecca told me in a harsh voice. God, what was her problem? "At the Gallagher Academy, we value personal health and safety." I stared at her, like she had just told me what to do. Oh wait. She just did. No one tells me what to do.
"No smoking." Cammie translated for me as it I didn't know what Rebecca had just said.
Pfft. Whatever. Like she could make me. I took another drag.
"Fine. You're lungs." She told me, shrugging her hideously uniform- clad shoulders.
Like I hadn't heard it all before.
Rebecca continued staring- no, glaring- at me. Just to humor her, I rolled my eyes, and dropped my cigarette into the Diet Coke can Cammie was holding out for me.
Then we started walking.
As we walked down the set of stairs in front of us, a cluster of girls brushed past us, all heading in the same direction.
"It's lunch time." Cammie said, eying the cafeteria like a homeless man eyes a five star restaurant. "We can go eat if you want." She said, attempting to keep the pleading out of her voice.
"I don't think so!" I snapped with a roll of my eyes.
"Really, the food here is great." She said, which made me confused. I thought I was supposed to hate it here. I thought that was what they were trying to do.
She started to mention something about fabulous crème brûlée, but I interrupted her. "I eat eight hundred calories a day."
The "guides," looked at each other incredulously. They shared a knowing look.
"Food is so yesterday." I continued, looking at them, I wondered how they managed to stay so fit if they ate more than that.
We continued walking and reached what Cammie called the Grand Hall. Her voice was starting to annoy me, so I turned to Rebecca, and asked her a question that had been nagging me since I saw them. "So everyone wears those uniforms?" I heard Cammie scoff behind me.
"We even wear them during gym." Rebecca said, fingering the hem of the skirt. I mentally shuddered.
Then Rebecca stepped toward the left, and said, "Here we have the library." The minute she finished that sentence, I thought of books. And books made me think of boredom. And I didn't like boredom.
I hated boredom so much, that I decided to veer off of their tour, and explore. "What's down here?" I asked the girls as I turned down a hallway. As I passed classrooms and hallways, the girls jogged to keep up with me. Cammie kept throwing out little pieces of information that a deaf person could hear in in her voice that she prided her self with having.
As we walked through the old hallway, Rebecca was telling me how if a girl gets a perfect score on a test, she gets to watch an hour of television for the week.
That was completely stupid.
So stupid, that I decided I wanted to tell Grace- my friend from Wellington- about it. Grace was a television fanatic. She couldn't go without watching at least two hours a day.
I plopped down on a comfortable looking window seat, pulled out my cell phone, scrolled through my contact list, and pressed the little green phone. Just as I put it up to my ear, an automated voice came over the speaker of the phone, and said, "No service in this area."
This was definitely not the same.
I held the phone in front of my face to see if it was lying to me.
Nope. No bars. No lying technology.
The girls who stood in front of me, laid on the sympathy, as Cammie said, "Yeah, cell phones don't work here."
Well obviously. I wanted to know why.
"We're to far from a tower." Rebecca told me, answering my question.
"No cell phones?" I said as if they'd just told me thy were a bunch of spies. "That's it. I'm so out of here."
This school was definitely not the same as the others.
I stood up from the window seat, and stormed away from the girls, and to the headmistress's office to ask her how they lived without modern technology. At least that my intention. Before some alcoholic -slash- teacher came up to me. He had watering, bloodshot eyes, and a swaggering body. And he slurred a two syllable word. "Hello."
I stared at him in pure disgust as he continued talking.
"I understand you're a potential student." He told me in a relatively coherent sentence. Just after he finished speaking, I heard the distinct thud of a skull hitting the ground.
What?!
I tried to see around him, but his swaying, five foot four frame prevented that.
I could tell it was something the girls didn't want me to see, becuase Rebecca quickly grabbed my arm and said, "Come on Macey. I know a short-"
Did I mention how I hated people touching me?
I quickly wrenched my arm away, and said, "Don't touch me bitch."
Then she got angry. Very angry. She stepped forward, and I braced myself for the imminent fight.
Then I was distracted. Severely.
Because a perfect replica of James Bond walked into my line of vision.
Oh my God, his eyes are amazing.
"Hello," He told me in a sexy voice. He had said the same thing as the aforementioned alcoholic, but it was different. "Welcome to the Gallagher Academy. I hope you're considering joining us." Oh I'll do anything for you. I thought as I batted my eyes in a seductive manner. "Are you enjoying your tour?" He continued saying. Oh it just got so much better. I thought, as I tried to prevent my ankles from shaking in my boots. "Do you have a second? There's something I want to show you on the second floor." You can show me anything. He pointed to the circular staircase to the right of us, and all four of us climbed the spiraling steps.
When we reached the second floor, he held his beautiful, muscular arms out at the kaleidescope of color that covered the walls and high ceiling. It was beautiful. We all stared at it for a few moments in awe. Then Mr. Sexy walked us back through the hall we had come from, and went back in the direction of the wall.
"Who was that?" I muttered to myself and the girls at the same time.
Rebecca was obviously not used to being called profanities, so she answered icily, "He's a new teacher."
"Yeah," I scoffed. "If you say so."
"I do say so." She said, just as haughtily as before.
This chick was seriously starting to stress me out, so I started to reach for my Camels. Then Rebecca's glare hardened.
"Let me lay it out for you." I said, thinking it was my duty to set these girls straight. "Best-case scenario: all the girls go ga- ga for him and lose focus, which I'm sure is very important for the Gallagher Acadmey," I said, my voice filled with mock reverence. "Worst-case scenario: he's an innapropriate conduct case waiting for a place to happen." A very hot one. "The only people who teach here, are freaks and geeks. And when you've got a headmistress who looks like that," I said, nodding toward the woman who was obviously Cammie's mom. "It's easy to see what Mr. Eyecandy was hired for." Or who.
"What?" Cammie said truly confused.
"You're the Gallagher Girl. If you can't figure it out, than who am I to tell you?" I askeed her, my eyebrows raised. She and Rebecca continued to stand there after I started walking toward the Senator, and his wife. As Mrs. Morgan continued to talk, I thought,
This is definitely not a normal school.